The bad news: Google doesn’t care if you rank high or low. It cares only that there are quality results that answer the query to the total satisfaction of the searcher.

So the pressing question is, how do you rank higher on Google Maps and Google local search results? This list of local SEO ranking factors is not exhaustive nor in priority order, but grouped into general categories which you can jump to as follows:

• Housekeeping signals
• Keywords and content signals
• On-page signals
• Linking signals
• Local Pack signals
• Social signals
• Success signals

Housekeeping Signals

1. Branding
Being a respected business in your community will increase your local search visibility. Google pays a lot of attention to a brand’s perceived trust and expertise. Even if you’re just starting out, aim for happy customers and consistent quality to attract traffic and mentions.

2. Domain name
Your website’s name should accurately represent your business or brand. It’ll be in every URL, so make it something appropriate and easily remembered. Don’t use a keyword phrase alone (e.g., www.FloristLosAngeles.com) to avoid an exact match domain (EMD) penalty. On the other hand, including a keyword as part of your domain (e.g., www.FirstStreetDental.com) can help you as a local business if it’s tied into your brand name. Search algorithms are getting better and better at weeding out low-quality results, so make sure your domain doesn’t look like spam.

3. Hosting
When it comes to web hosting, think about speed, availability, and maintained software. Choose a host that ensures your content is served up quickly, since page load speed is now a factor in Google’s algorithm. Beyond the hosting platform, there are many ways to speed up your web pages. Using Accelerated Mobile Pages and/or Progressive Web Apps may be worth considering, as well.

4. Content management system (CMS)
Above all else, your CMS should be easy to use. Here, WordPress is king, consistently the top CMS used on the web. Consider how you can improve your system’s functionality with plugins — WordPress.org lists 1,864 plugins for “local” alone. And, don’t forget about a WordPress SEO plugin, too.

5. Compatibility
We’re in a mobile-first world, with the majority of searches happening on smartphones and Google evaluating sites based on their mobile friendliness. Check your site to make sure it’s mobile friendly and optimized for mobile devices — otherwise, your rankings and visitor counts will suffer. Voice search is the next big area of compatibility.

6. Email
Use your business’s domain in your email address (@bruceclay.com) rather than @gmail or another generic provider. It’s a small point, but worth putting on the housekeeping checklist to increase your professionalism and perceived trustworthiness.

Keywords and Content Signals

7. Keyword and content gap analysis
Identify the keywords working for you in terms of hitting key performance indicators and bringing in revenue. Use keyword research to find additional phrases that can serve your personas/community, and examine your competition online for their keywords. Wherever you find a gap in your own content compared to the top-ranking sites, expand accordingly.

8. Detailed competitive review
To get a more in-depth look at your competition, you’ll need to perform some competitor research and siloing your web content based on the themes your business is about. Set up your navigation and internal links carefully to create a hierarchical structure for the content on your site. Doing so will strengthen your site’s relevance and expertise around those topics.

10. Content variety
Many different types of content can be “localized” to pertain specifically to your community. The list includes images, news, events, blog posts, videos, ads, tools and more. Having a variety of types of content indexed also gives your site more opportunity to rank, since they can appear in the vertical search engines (e.g., Google Images, YouTube, etc.).

11. Content creation strategies
To establish yourself as a local authority, tell local stories and express your opinion about the topics your business and your customers are focused on. Excellent content can become a strategy for attracting search traffic and also local expert links.

12. Local videos
When you create videos that are appropriate to your website and region, you’ll soon discover that people will share them more on a local level. Build landing pages for your videos on your site to attract links and mentions. You can do this by uploading a video to your YouTube channel first, then embedding it on your page (copy the HTML right from YouTube’s Share tab into your page’s code).

13. Long-tail rankings
Use locally relevant content to rank higher in searches around the Local Pack. Examples would include posts like “The 5 Best Restaurants in Las Vegas,” which could answer long-tail queries such as, “What are the best restaurants in Las Vegas.”

14. Local relevance
Having content that’s locally focused can improve your reputation and reach in your area. This requires more than doing a find-and-replace on the city name to create hundreds of basically duplicate pages. You can start with templates, but make sure you’re including enough customized text, images and data to be locally relevant.

15. Landing pages
For the best local results, create optimal landing pages. For example, if your brand serves a wide region, you might have a different landing page for each city in that region, like “dog grooming Simi Valley” and “dog grooming Thousand Oaks.”

16. Schema NAP+W
Schema markup is code you can add to your website to help search engines understand your various types of information. According to Searchmetrics, pages with schema markup rank an average of four positions higher in search results.

Local businesses need schema in particular to call out their name, address, phone and website URL, also known as NAP+W, as well as hours of operation and much more. As an example, here’s what schema for our NAP+W would look like in the page code:

Google is planning to expand its use of schema, so be sure to take advantage of all the structured data that applies to your content. Check out Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to confirm you’re implementing schema correctly.

17. Information in the Local Pack
Search engines want to make sure local business information is valid before presenting it in the “Local Pack” (the handful of local listings Google displays at the top of a web search results page, with addresses and a map). A business’s proximity to the searcher heavily influences whether it shows up in Local Pack results, so your location matters.

Keep your NAP+W data consistent across all sources. This is a local SEO priority, as it improves the search engines’ confidence in your business listing’s accuracy.

Be sure to include your business address on your own website. You can do this in the footer so it appears on every page, or at least show it on your contact page.

18. Google Map embedded
By adding a Google map to your contact page or footer, you can quickly show searchers and search engines exactly where you’re located. Using an embedded map rather than a static map image provides extra functionality and reduces friction — a human visitor can just click the map and grab directions. On our site, the embedded map shows in the footer when a user clicks [Location & Hour Information]:

19. Testimonials
To boost your brand’s credibility, you’ll need to get some local reviews or testimonials. Earn them (here’s a list of SEO-approved ways to get local reviews) and then add them, localized and with the author identified whenever possible. Testimonials, especially on a local level, can have a big impact. Seventy-three percent of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more.

20. Hawk update
Google has long had proximity filters in place that prevent multiple listings from the same business monopolizing local search results. However, in the August 2017 Hawk update Google tightened its proximity filtering for organic ranking. The filtering radius for a same category business has been reduced from 500 feet to 200 feet. Same category businesses at the same address, however, are still filtered. The more exact restrictions may benefit businesses that previously had a higher ranked competitor just down the street, as both businesses may now be able to show up in local results. (Edited, h/t Mike Blumenthal)

On-Page Signals

21. Technical on-page SEO
On-page elements are critical to get right for organic SEO on any web page. In addition to the standard optimization items (see our Always-Up-to-Date SEO checklist for a list), a locally targeted page should have:

• City in the title tag
• Schema markup (as appropriate to the page contents)
• Do not stuff keywords
• Do not simply find-and-replace city names
• Appropriate reading level and complexity (compare top-ranking pages to find your sweet spot)

22. Local keyword optimization
Be sure to mention local keywords on your web pages (such as the name of your city, state or region and other geographical/local references) to help solidify Google’s understanding of your location and help you rank for local keyword queries.

Linking Signals

23. Local link building
You cannot rank in a city without having local links. When relevant, quality websites within your city link back to you, it shows you’re a trusted local brand. Only links coming from unique IPs, unique domains and unique WhoIs for your geographic area will help you rank, so don’t fall for link schemes. The anchor text (clickable text) used in the links also send a signal to search engines. (See more link building guidelines.)

24. Local directories
To make it easier for searchers to find you, you’ll want to be included in geotargeted directories for services, such as Yellow Pages online, a local restaurant database, or other. These citations add more weight to your site in the local search ranking algorithms. (This interview with local expert Darren Shaw gives helpful information on local listings, including a directory list.)

25. Social and web mentions
Are people talking about your brand online? Even if they don’t include a link, brand mentions on social media platforms show engagement and interest in your business. These linkless mentions (and also “nofollow” links) help your business by attracting new customers and reinforcing your brand’s reputation, which can even influence local search rankings. Use a tool like GeoRanker to identify local citations and social media tools to keep tabs on the conversation.

26. External links
Boost your credibility by linking to local expert resources that would be useful to your site visitors. Choose external web pages that are relevant to your subject matter and region. Remember that in order to be viewed as a local expert, you should visibly network with other local experts.

27. Competitor backlinks
If someone is linking to your competition, they might link to you as well. Start by looking at the backlink profile of your top-ranked competitors (using a backlink analysis tool such as Majestic, Ahrefs or other). Identify good candidates — high-quality and relevant sites that don’t already link to yours. Then see if you can earn links from those same sites.

Local Pack Signals

28. NAP+W consistency
As mentioned earlier, NAP+W refers to your business name, address, phone number and website URL. The goal here is for your NAP+W to be consistent across the board — wherever it’s listed online. For local optimization, you don’t want to have various versions of your address and phone number out there, such as:

To see if your NAP+W is consistent, try Yext’s free test.

29. Google My Business (GMB) optimization
Having a Google My Business listing is critical for businesses with service areas and physical businesses. It’s a free business listing to start building your visibility in Google Maps and Google Search.

In addition to ensuring NAP+W information is accurate, here are some optimization tips for your Google listing:

• Add a unique description about your business. Make it long (400+ words), formatted correctly, and include links to your website.
• Add your open business hours.
• Select the best categories for your business (use Blumenthal’s Google Places for Business Category Tool).
• Include a high-resolution profile cover image, plus as many additional photos as possible.
• Use a local phone number (not a toll-free number).
• Encourage reviews from your customers.
• Use Google Posts to enhance your brand’s Knowledge Panel with upcoming events or special news. Your post displays only temporarily (usually for seven days), but will remain visible to anyone looking up your brand using Google mobile search, so make each post unique.

Secondly, create and optimize your business listing on Bing Places for Business.

30. Check your site on Google Maps
Your Google My Business listing and schema also help get your business to show up in Google Maps. Since navigation systems and customers may refer to Google Maps to find you, make sure the pin marks the correct location for your business. Here’s how to add or edit your site in Google Maps.

31. Local business listings
Increase your visibility by including your business on sites such as Yelp, Thomson Local, Angie’s List, Yellow Pages, TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon, OpenTable, Merchant Circle and Foursquare, as well as local travel and news sites — choose the sites that fit your type of business and customer base.

32. Better Business Bureau (BBB)
Boost your credibility by ensuring that your business is listed with the BBB. Monitor your ratings there and display your BBB rating on your website as a trust signal for visitors. As with all local directories, make sure your location information on BBB matches your NAP+W.

33. Citation building and reviews
Reviews will usually reflect absolute happiness or absolute misery. So it’s important to monitor the quantity and sentiment of your online reviews so you can actively manage your reputation.

• Review sites to monitor include: Facebook, Google, Yelp, Bing, local chamber websites and more.
• Sites where citations and mentions may occur include: Reddit, Quora, news media sites like WSJ, etc.
• Consider adding a page to your website with instructions on how to provide reviews and feedback.

34. Location pages
It’s recommended that you have one or more pages on your site dedicated to each location your business is in. Dedicate a page to each keyword, for example, “real estate agent, Simi Valley” (services, then city). Design this to be a good landing page for anyone searching within that area, and make the content unique. Avoid laundry lists or simply doing a wild card replace for the city name. Search engines can spot that type of duplicate content a mile away. (See our tips for dealing with thin content on your site.)

35. Press releases
Press releases can be a great way to let locals know that you exist, especially if you have breaking news. Opening a new location? Hosting a charity event? Be sure to publicize it, and include the local geo references (city name, etc.) in your text. A press release published through an online PR site might catch the eye of a reporter who will publish a news article about your business in a local publication.

Social Signals

36. Social profiles
Being active in social media and sharing your content (think content marketing) contribute to keeping your business top-of-mind. On social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest, your profile pages matter — make them consistent with your brand voice and informative. Be sure to include your contact information. Engagement with your brand is a social signal, such as when something you’ve posted is shared or liked. It’s also a way to engage with current and potential customers.

37. Touch your followers
Help customers stay in the know. Social media can be an efficient way to spread news, local deals, alerts and updates to your customer base as well as get the word out to others. Interact with them one-on-one, and you may develop a brand advocate for life.

38. Become the local expert
Make yourself known as a trustworthy business by building local expertise and authority in your space. For example, you could teach a class or speak at a local event. Brainstorm presentations that bring value to an audience while showcasing your expert knowledge related to your business.

39. Local discounts
Attract local customers by offering discounts for locals. For example, you could offer members of a local organization $x or x% off your products or services, accept AAA discounts, or other.

Success Signals for Local SEO

40. Online and offline conversion tracking/analytics
Stay on top of your conversions — actual results and dollars earned from your website — through analytics. (If you haven’t yet, set up Google Analytics for free.) Pay particular attention to rising or falling click-through rates and bounce rates, which will show you how many searchers clicked through to your site and whether they liked what they found.

Enable mobile users to simply click to call your phone number wherever it appears, and track those interactions. Appointments and sales made online may also be important metrics for success. Remember, not counting progress is a failure.

41. Monitor rankings
Be aware of your rankings in regular organic results and in the Local Pack. I suggest you choose at least five specific local keyword phrases to focus on at a time, but test more for rankings. Regularly check to see whether your business shows up on the first page of search results; compare your results to that of your competition. You can do this through manual viewing of “[keyword] near me”-type searches, if you’re in the local area. You can also use a tool like AuthorityLabs to track local rankings.

While there’s a lot of work that goes into boosting your local search rankings, it will be well worth your time and effort as a local business. It may even mean your survival. The points on this local SEO checklist give you lots of ways to attract more customers with your online strategy.

I want to hear from you. Would you add anything to this list? Share your local checklist to-dos in the comments below. Then share this article with a friend.

The post How Do I Rank Higher in Google Local Search? Bruce Clay’s Checklist for Local SEO appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

That’s seven ads at the top of every page.

That’s where we’re headed with Google Home Service Ads.

Google Home Service Ads are Expanding

Google Home Service Ads are sponsored listings in the Google Local Pack. Here’s what they look like:

What Are Google Home Service Ads?

Google Home Service Ads beta-launched on July 30, 2015.

The invite-only program enabled plumbers and locksmiths in California’s Bay Area to become Google Guaranteed Service Providers and appear atop the newly “Sponsored” Local Pack.

Since then, the pilot program has expanded to San Diego and Sacramento and is now open to handymen, electricians and house cleaners, as well.

The program is slated to soon expand to Los Angeles.

Along with expanded locales, Home Service Ads expanded to mobile search results. As of Nov. 21, Google Home Service Ads can now show up on mobile search engine results pages, complete with service area maps.

Although Google Home Services Ads are still in beta, and you’ll only find them if you’re searching for locksmiths and plumbers in the Bay Area, Sacramento and San Diego, Google Home Service Ads are here and brands and businesses need to be aware.

Google Home Service Ads are only going to keep expanding.

If Sponsored Listings Aren’t Available for My Industry Do I Still Need to Pay Attention?

If you’re not a locksmith, plumber, house cleaner, handyman or electrician in the Bay Area, Sacramento or San Diego, do you need to be paying attention? Absolutely.

Paid inclusion is a reality and it’s only a matter of time before it rolls out to all local businesses. Google is in the business of making money. Therefore, it’s in Google’s best interest to monetize local listings across industries, nationwide.

Why Is Google Monetizing Local Listings?

If paying a “lead fee” to be ranked at the top of local listings, even with an ad designation, is not paid inclusion, then what is?

You pay — and you jump above the others.

Do not be fooled. This is a revenue opportunity for Google and it is expected to spread quickly.

As with PPC ads, you’ll get more keyword data using Google’s Home Service Ads.

The way things are headed, business owners will have no choice but to buy Home Service Ads.

Listen to this: SEO Jim Froling shared an eye-opening story in a thread on Local Search Forum about Home Service Ads.

One of Froling’s clients, a locksmith in Oceanside, California, was contacted by Google. The Google representative told the client that “his Google My Business listing was going away and that he would have no local visibility unless he signed on with Home Service Ads.”

Paid inclusion (aka Home Service Ads) will become the only chance local business have to appear in Local Packs.

How Long Until Google Home Services Roll Out to My Industry?

How soon before paid inclusion is a reality across all industries? Perhaps sooner than you’d think.  Remember when AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) was just for the publishing industry? AMP launched for news publishers on Oct. 7, 2015. Less than a year later, it was available to all sites in all industries.

Local Listings Have Never Been Organic

There’s been a common misconception that local listings were an organic space, and therefore would always be free from ads. But local listings are not an organic space, nor have they ever been.

Local listings have always been an opt-in opportunity, based on information provided by businesses.

Unlike organic search results, Google local listings were never based on public trust information or information gathered from the web – you don’t even have to have a website to have a local listing. It’s a Google-owned directory.

Paid inclusion has been in the cards for years. The expansion of Google Home Service Ads comes as no surprise to me. I’ve been doing SEO since 1996, and I share my annual digital marketing predictions every year.

Back in 2012, I wrote:

“Local results become a massive revenue source for the search engines. A local paid inclusion program develops where brick and mortar sites can get local result preferential listings for a reasonable monthly fee. Some engines will offer comprehensive call tracking and analytics for local paid inclusion programs.

Local Paid Inclusion will replace traditional SEO and PPC as the first traffic tactic. Premium listings in local results will immediately gain popularity as early adopters happily get traffic for a low fee in a matter of days. This will be the most significant traffic tactic in 2012. Everyone that has a local address will participate.”

Pay attention as Google Home Service Ads roll out across all local industries. You’re going to need to strengthen your local SEO strategy and possibly increase your local listings budget in Google’s increasingly pay-to-play ecosystem.

Let us help you drive and track traffic to your website with a local SEO and PPC strategy. BCI’s services are tailor-made to match your business goals and audience. Let’s talk more about growing revenue through digital marketing.

The post Why You Won’t Recognize Google Local Listings in a Year: Home Services Ads Explained by Bruce Clay appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Enter the 2016 Quantitative Local Search Ranking Factors study. This mammoth, data-crunching undertaking to analyze 100+ factors across 30,000 businesses was conducted by Local SEO Guide and Places Scout, all toward the goal of figuring out how local businesses can rank better in Google.

See the official study write-ups:

• Local SEO Guide local search ranking factors report
• Places Scout local search ranking factors report

At Bruce Clay, Inc., we count lawyers and plastic surgeons among our SEO services clients, along with multi-location automotive service chains and national franchise brands. There are unique challenges posed by local SEO. So it was an intellectual joy to talk about the biggest-bang-for-your-buck local search strategies with two of the study co-authors. Many thanks to Dan Leibson (Local SEO Guide VP of local and product) and Mark Kabana (Places Scout CEO and founder).

If you have 25 minutes (and some patience to stomach technical audio difficulties), I’d invite you to watch our discussion. Otherwise, I’ve summed up the highlights below.

Read on for the top three things (and one crucial bonus) you need your teams doing today to get the edge in local search.

1. Get Links

Here’s a chart of the factors analyzed in the study.

What the pros say:

Dan Leibson: That pie chart represents the factors we analyzed and what percent were link factors, website factors, Google My Business (GMB) factors and off-site factors. Those are the core factors that we analyzed in the study.

Mark Kabana: With the data we gathered, 50% of those factors were link factors. The reason we weighed links so heavily is because we’ve always known that links are important. The reason to do a study like this is because, in addition to links, we now have new things like reviews and social, website analysis and other things that are included as part of the study.

The bottom line: Whatever you’re doing right now, stop doing it and try to get a few links.

Top local #SEO tip from @DanLeibson: Stop whatever you’re doing right now and get a few links.
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Local Link Building Tip!

Meetup.com allows sponsorship of local meetup groups. Find local meetup groups and offer to sponsor them with pizza or a room to have their meetup group. You can often get a link through that.

2. Get Reviews

The #1 most correlated local ranking factor is reviews.

What the pros say:

Mark Kabana: All along, Google has been focused on websites’ popularity. Whoever the coolest kid is in high school, they want to rank them the highest in Google. Back in the day, Google didn’t have a whole lot to work with so it was mainly things like backlinks that would get them to rank you higher.

These days with social being a bigger influence, there’s a lot of different ways to become more popular in the eyes of Google; one of them is more reviews. Your business seems more popular if a lot of people are talking about you.

Reviews may not technically be a backlink, but they may drive other factors such as click-through rates, people spend more time on your site, your bounce rate lowering, things like that might be a secondary factor that increases other primary ranking factors.

Tip for Getting Reviews

Don’t be ashamed to ask for reviews. This is more applicable to small businesses. If you’re a multi-location business, you need to get buy-in for a review program at the corporate level. It’s  really hard to get your locations all invested in that at the same time and it’s something you want to control with the marketing team. Look into GetFiveStars or Grade.us, or any type of review management software.

3. Post Photos and Get User Submitted Photos on GMB

Just below reviews, profile views and a handful of link signals, photos are a top correlated local ranking factor.

What the pros say:

Mark Kabana: The more photos you have, the more people are talking about you and you look cooler to Google. One thing we didn’t analyze is whether those photos came from the business or from a user. We measured the raw photo count from the Google My Business page. The question of whether photos that users share have more impact on rankings than photos that the business shares is something we’re going to look into in our 2017 study.

Dan Leibson: Google wants to focus more on brands and branding — anything that creates a richer user experience.  So for people throughout all types of industries — whether on the content side, the SEO side, the pay per click side, the social side — a robust, richer content drives better user engagement.

SEOs have done experiments showing that more user engagement with the Google My Business page does seem to improve the rankings. So anything you can do on the branding side to make your business look better and make people more willing to engage with it has the potential benefit of improving your ranking.

Bonus To-Do! Verify Your Google My Business Listing

Having an owner-verified Google My Business listing correlated better with strong search performance. So if you’re a small business and there’s nothing you’re doing with Google My Business right now, get verified.

How do these top four local SEO to-dos line up with your experience? Shout out in the comments.

The post 3 Things to Do Today to Get More In-Store Visits from Local Search appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

• Greg Gifford, Director of Search & Social, DealerOn (@greggifford)
• Casey Meraz, Founder, Ethical SEO Consulting (@caseymeraz)
• Adam Dorfman, SVP – Product & Technology, SIM Partners (@phixed)
• Chris Silver Smith, Founder & CEO, Argent Media (@si1very)

Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Land and Marketing Land Matt McGee moderates. Scroll down to get expert answer to questions including:

• What is working in local search and what is not working today?
• Last month, Google stopped showing ads on the right side of the desktop SERP. What is the impact of a change like that on your clients?
• What’s the current balance between focus on local listing optimization vs. traditional organic SEO to boost local rankings?
• What are the factors that get you in the three pack since it is such a narrow space now?
• You want to rank in a certain town or city but you’re not quite in it. Are you completely out of luck?
• What recommendations do you have for getting a business listed on a street that is new?
• Is there any way to get rid of a Google listing for a closed business?

There have been a number of changes over the past year – what is working in local search and what is not working today?

Dorfman: When I think about the last year the biggest change that I see is the signal of where you are searching from and what you have searched for in the past seemed to be playing a larger and larger role. Citations and organic SEO reviews and links still matter very much, but so much of that is being trumped by where you’re searching from and businesses that happen to be in the right place and the right time can have big wins.

Gifford: Localization and personalization has drastically changed – we’ve really had to educate clients to stop tracking rankings. It’s more important to concentrate on metrics that show how successful you are: organic traffic, impressions, etc.

Concentrate on metrics such as organic traffic that show how successful you are. – @greggifford
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Meraz: I put a lot more focus on link acquisition, building the domain authority, etc. to move the needle to increase exposure as much as possible.

Smith: Google’s movements toward identifying mobile as a ranking factor is a really big deal. I also enjoy greatly the reveal in December that a Googler gave us that accidentally validating that CTR can improve rankings – something I’ve long suspected. The impression you make in the search results is something you have to pay attention to. Pay attention to structured data and the photos that show up when people search for you. Something affecting search more now than ever like social activity. Drive your popularity in Google.

Last month, Google stopped showing ads on the right side of the desktop SERP. What is the impact of a change like that on your clients?

Gifford: Preliminary results are actually showing an increase in click-throughs to organic results because there are less distractions in the right rail.

Meraz: Put a lot more focus on local now more than ever. Even on my laptop, I see the ads and then maybe one or two local results – organic is so far down, you really need to stand out (in local).

“Put a lot more focus on local now more than ever.” – @caseymeraz
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Smith: I don’t have really good empirical data yet, but for a great many local searches I think it reduced the prom of organic to some degree so I think it’s motivated more monetization of PPC. But for local PPC people, it’s going to increase the competition for those first positions on the page. Talk about attorneys – the places they compete for have winnowed down to four and it’s going to increase the cost per click.

What’s the current balance between focus on local listing optimization vs. traditional organic SEO to boost local rankings?

Dorfman: It’s on the in the same. The signals are so similar. Getting your citations correct, getting good links point to you, etc. are all incredibly important. So many searches now are local. If you’re not doing everything it’s very hard to show up.

Smith: You can’t do one without the other.

What are the factors that get you in the three pack since it is such a narrow space now?

Dorfman: All the factors matter. If you think about organic optimization there are hundreds of signals, and there are hundreds of signals under those hundreds of signals. If you focus just on three or four, it’s not going to be enough. You have to spread a very wide net and do lots of things right. Provide an experience that speaks the best to customers and potential customers.

“Provide an experience that speaks the best to customers.” – @phixed
Click To Tweet

Gifford: For a lot of us who do local exclusively we’ve had to pivot. Before pigeon it was easy to get people in to the map pack and then pigeon showed up and it became a lot harder.

You want to rank in a certain town or city but you’re not quite in it. Are you completely out of luck?

Dorfman: No. you have a massive uphill battle to fight, though. If you can associate your business with that city through content, there’s nothing stopping you from building something out. Most of the links you can get for that are citation oriented. And you’ll have to create content that is 100X better than businesses that are in the city.

Meraz: I see virtual offices work sometimes for lawyers. Everything depends, unfortunately.

Dorman: It’s possible with virtual offices. I don’t know that I would go for any of the well-known brand name ones though. If you’re a super rich attorney maybe your approach is to have your suburb annexed by the city so you’re in a different area.

What recommendations do you have for getting a business listed on a street that is new?

Smith: Keep increasing references to that location online. Check in services are great for that. But the reality is it’s not going to show up on maps until maps are updated.

Is there any way to get rid of a Google listing for a closed business?

Gifford: I would say call Google phone support and get them to get rid of it.

Dorfman: Close it in all the places within Google My Business.

What are some methods for tagging local traffic in Google Analytics?

Dorfman: Google My Business is one thing – if you start putting different tracking appendages across all your URLs and appendages, I think that can muddy the ecosystem. Be very very careful in how you do it. That said, if you look at referral sources, it should be clear where traffic is coming from.

Gifford: Honestly, we don’t even worry about tracking it. For a car dealership, you already know that your traffic is local.

We do seminars in various cities. Is there anything on the local side of search that we can do to combat negative reviews in these cities we visit where we don’t have a physical presence?

Smith: I’d have to ask why there would be so many widespread negative reviews? Is there something that’s wrong with the business itself? If you haven’t addressed the core problem you’re just going to repeat cleanup. You could create webpages and entities targeting each of the locations where you commonly go for your seminars in each location to rank for the searches in each of those locations. That’s one way to create content proactively. Also, make sure to address the negative reviews.

Address the core problem to avoid repeat cleanup. – @si1very
Click To Tweet

Share some techniques to get reviews.

Gifford & Dorman: GetFiveStars.com.

Smith: Incentivize it. Offer a free dessert, for example, if you’re a restaurant and want a review. You can’t pay for a review, though.

How do you evaluate the efficacy of a review site?

Dorman: I look at industry first and foremost. For instance, if I think about travel, I want quality reviews on TripAdvisor as well as Google. Google is typically at the top of the list, and then industry-specific sites are right below Google.

Meraz: Also look at your referral traffic in Google Analytics and find out what review sites are driving traffic.

Should every business be on Yelp?

Gifford: The stars that populate on Apple maps come from Yelp, not Google. So you have to pay attention to Yelp no matter what.

Share a key takeaway on what is working in local search.

Dorfman: Market for the consumer not the location.

“Market for the consumer not the location.”  – @phixed
Click To Tweet

Gifford: Even though we’re talking local SEO, paid Facebook ads are killing it right now. It’s amazing the things you can do with ads and beacons right now.

Meraz: Links that aren’t just helping because of authority but because they get in front of your audience move the needle.

Smith: I’m continually amazed that solid SEO can frequently beat competitors. Pay attention the the basics.

The post Search Whizzes Talk Local SEO Strategy: Adam Dorfman, Greg Gifford, Casey Meraz & Chris Silver Smith LIVE at #SMX appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

The automotive industry is incredibly competitive when it comes to search engine marketing. To rise to the competition requires in-depth local SEO knowledge and PPC know-how. This session offers strategies for search marketing, both paid and organic, that all marketers can use. Our speakers are Ira Kates, who will speak to paid search, and Greg Gifford, who addresses organic local SEO.

Speakers:

• Ira Kates, Senior Digital Business Strategist, 360i Canada (@IraKates)
• Greg Gifford, Director of Search and Social, DealerOn (@GregGifford)

Ira Kates: Automotive Search: Lessons from the Kitchen

Ira cooked for 10 years and he’s noticed that lessons from chefs in the kitchen have application to search. Today he’ll use lessons from chefs he admires to illustrate ways to compete in PPC. It’s a crazy competitive time to be in the automotive PPC industry, Kates explains.

“Perfection is lots of little things done well.” –Fernand Point

Is the structure of your account contributing to the theme you want to tell your prospective car buyer?

The lifeblood of paid search is match type. You don’t want to compete against yourself. Funnel everything toward best performing keyword.

If you break this funnel down, there are funnels within funnels.

• At the national level, you’re looking at people viewing galleries, comparing specs, taking an action that they’re very interested in what the car is offering.
• For dealer associations, ask questions of what the purpose of the organization is to support the funnel.
• At the dealer level, he explains to customers that “these are the actions” we’re looking to get (book a test drive, contact dealer, search inventory).
• “Aftercare” is a new area in the funnel that Ira’s added to this visual aid since last year’s presentations. Why not focus on this, especially with remarketing available?

If you’re acquiring a new PPC account, take the campaign down for a couple weeks and scrub the account to apply the fundamentals. Implementing a simple, revised negative keyword list, for example, can result in lower CPA and CPC and you can take that new funding to reinvest in winners.

Ad Copy

A meal tells a story of how it came to your plate. You eat with your eyes as well as your other senses. Your ad needs to tell the story of why someone needs to do something.

Write your ad for the moment. A year-long test across multiple competitive nameplates show the following (and the author’s take is that facts perform better than brand claims):

You can see a huge gap of almost doubled conversion rates in the results. Use the geo-gating built into AdWords and focus on people a mile or two within your lot. That’s how you can test claims like this.

Creative ads on competitor brand queries:

• “Don’t Go Rogue – Escape the Mundane” – a search ad on the query “nissan rogue”
• “Did You Mean Ford Focus? – Phew, Dodged That Bullet” – a search ad on the query “hyundai elantra”

These are fun headlines. For a national brand to do this adds character to the SERP. Don’t be afraid to test.

Testing and Learning

Start small and prove something with a little test on one ad group.

“Good food doesn’t come from following a recipe to the letter. It’s about having the confidence to experiment.” –Marco-Pierre White

This is especially true at the dealership level because 90% of competitors aren’t testing and experimenting; they aren’t rotating their ad creative out enough.

A year ago, his big takeaways was:

Pay attention to things like “ga(require, displayfeatures)”. Build up audiences and bucket them. Now you can test your ad copy and speak to these people again.

Test remarketing audiences for search. He tested Remarketing Audiences in Google Analytics over a two-month period focusing on non-brand keywords.

The conversions they’re driving are dealership leads.

Favorite research method: Use SEMRush to find competitor’s top SEO keywords that aren’t super competitive and focus limited conquest dollars against those keywords.

Jump on Google Customer Match – announced 2 weeks ago – to be ahead of the curve.  You can use this to stop your customers from going to a third-tier oil change business. The most powerful use case for Google Customer Match is you know exactly what customer is ending their lease in 3 months. Why not talk to them when they’re starting their research on search?

Finally, here are flags to watch out for if someone comes to your dealership and says they want your digital business. They should be able to speak to all these things.

Flags to watch out for:

1. No examples of work
2. Price slashing with no offer of how
3. No clear vision of what your success is
4. Not asking questions about the business
5. Only PPC concern is bulking up accounts
6. Can’t define CRO, new extensions or how they measure success
7. Require you to purchase a website or any other service just for them to run PPC

Greg Gifford: SEO Lessons Learned from the Competitive Automotive Vertical

Or: You Suck at Local SEO

Get his full presentation here

These local SEO tips will help your dealerships. Check out the weekly Wednesday workshop video on the DealerOn blog. Local SEO is a tough puzzle to crack. You can’t skate by because otherwise you’re blending into the background and will be invisible to customers. He’s going to show us the code behind the Google algo.

The automotive niche is crazy competitive, second only to maybe payday loans, bankruptcy attorneys and divorce attorneys. Every major market has 300-600 dealerships (used and new) competing for top SERP spots. No one understands that local SEO is different from web search SEO.

A dealership called up complaining he wasn’t showing up in Google but really he meant Google Maps. He didn’t understand how Google works. Every dealer thinks they should be #1 and that SEO is “instant on.” Everyone thinks they’re so unique:

• “We treat our customers like family.”
• “We’re family owned.”
• “We have a state-of-the-art showroom.”
• “No haggle pricing/up front pricing.”

Every dealership says this. Automotive SEO vendors are just as bad. Things shady SEO vendors do:

• Junk duplicated content (same content for every trim with year/make/model replaced)
• Outdated SEO strategies (keyword stuffing meta description, multiple city names stuffed into a title tag, hidden text in a “read more” link)
• Go 6 months without touching a site
• X pages of content per month without a strategy

Local SEO is an easy win because no one is doing it. Do the extra stuff and blow past everyone not doing it. It changes all the time so it’s important to keep up to date and update your strategy. See our extensive Checklist for Local SEO for even more help.
Recent big updates important for local SEO:

• Pigeon update (July 2014)
• GMB Quality Guidelines update (December 2014)
  • Most importantly don’t include a descriptor in your GMB business name
  • Choose only the most specific categories (he suspects weight/value given to category choices)
  • Different departments with different pages must choose unique categories
• New three-result local pack (August 2015) (read the BCI blog report of for the latest on this change)
• Local Search Ranking Factors Study 2015 (released by Moz two weeks ago)

The rest of the presentation covers the findings of the newly released study Local Search Ranking Factors Study (LSRF). What’s changed since Pubcon 2014? See the image to the right.

• Big drop in GMB pages
• Drop in link signals
• Drop in on-page
• Increase in behavior and mobile

On-Site Signals – 23% of the LSRF

The most important question to ask is why do you deserve to rank? Content matters but don’t take that the wrong way. It’s quality of content and not quantity of content. Don’t push out so much junk.

This stuff sucks:

• No home page content (like all jpeg images)
• Only a few sentences on a page
• Default page text – this is a pervasive problem in auto right now because an OEM like Audi requires all dealers to use a certain platform and the dealer never customizes the content so their site is made up of default content
• Blatant keyword spamming
• Awful title tags – this is the most important SEO element

Stop trying to fool the nerds at Google. Write your content for people, not search engines. For local search, when you put anything on your site, do it to make your website better for your customers. Be unique and useful.

PRO TIP: read your content out loud to someone else. This is how you can hear if the content is helpful.

Optimize content for local:

• Include City, ST in
  • title tag – don’t put company name first (you don’t need to optimize for it)
  • alt text
  • body content
  • URLs
  • Meta description
• Embedded GMB map (from GMB page, not from Maps)
• Consistent NAP
• You must have a blog (not a luxury)
  • You need to post things people will actually want to read. Write posts about local topics.

Want to rank in nearby cities? Use local content silos

Link Signals – 20% of the LSRF

• Thanks to Penguin, links are no longer simply a numbers game
• Get local links (example: small church websites) to local content pages (not all pointed to home page)
• Take advantage of sponsorships, events, things you’re already doing in the community
• Pay attention to internal linking!

GMB – 14.7% of the LSRF

• The most important thing you can do is claim your GMB. If you’re having trouble getting the postcard or it’s claimed by an ex-employees personal account, use GMB phone support
• Choose the right categories
• Upload custom user and cover image

Citation Signals

• It’s your mentions of your NAP on other websites
• Most dealers have a ton of citation problems. Your citations have to be 100% consistent.
• Do a quick check of major citations with Moz Local
• Use Whitespark to check all your citations

Review Signals – 8.4%

• 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as reviews from friends or family.
• 4 out of 5 people will decide not to do business with you if you have bad reviews. You can’t fake good reviews. You can’t fake caring about your customers. He turns down business from shady car dealerships. You have to be legit before you do SEO. Don’t ignore Yelp; it powers the stars on Apple Maps.
• Read up on review strategy
• Make sure you have more reviews than your competitors. You need five before you get the aggregate star ratings. Get more reviews but not too many more; customers will think you’re faking results.

Bonus tip: Don’t tether Facebook and Twitter. Use any of the many tools that you can post to both at the same time without it looking to the user like it’s out of place in the native environment.

While you’re here, Bruce Clay offers industry-leading PPC and SEM services. Get in touch today!

The post SEO & SEM in the Competitive Automotive Space – Pubcon Liveblog appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

• Why did Google switch to the 3 pack from the 7 pack?
• Are you guys also seeing a drop-off in clicks?
• What advice are you giving to businesses now? Especially for those who had visibility at spots 4 or 5 or 6?
• Are virtual offices allowed?
• Does anyone have statistics regarding how clicks are distributed between Google Maps and Google organic?
• Links vs. citations?
• What other things like scholarships and sponsorship of community organizations can businesses do?
• For multiple business locations, do you create separate directory listings?
• How do we avoid the difficulties of every time you make a change to a locksmith listing it gets marked as spam?
• How accurate is the data in the GMB dashboard?
• What’s the optimal time frame for posting new content to a GMB page?
• How are apps affecting local?
• How are you getting reviews?

Moderator: Matt McGee, Editor In Chief, Search Engine Land & Marketing Land (@mattmcgee)

Speakers:

• Mary Bowling, Local SEO and Search Engine News (@MaryBowling)
• Joy Hawkins, Product Consultant at Imprezzio Marketing (@joyannehawkins)
• Casey Meraz, Founder of Ethical SEO Consulting (@caseymeraz)
• Andrew Shotland, President of Local SEO Guide, Inc. (@localseoguide)

Why did Google switch to the 3 pack from the 7 pack?

Mary: Google has said for a long time that they want the same mobile and desktop experience.

Casey: To monetize — and he’s expecting more of that down the road. We’ve seen tests where they’re testing no organic or local results above the fold, especially on mobile. So, it’s feasible that they keep only ads above the fold.

Andrew: Likely 3 local results for mobile usability, and it’s gravy if you can switch them to paid.

Joy: Many of her clients saw no drops in clicks when the switch happened, so maybe no one was clicking beyond result 3.

Mary: Maybe Google doesn’t as strongly feel the need to show multiple results because they’ve gotten good at serving local results over big brands like Yelp.

Are you guys also seeing no drop-off in clicks?

Andrew: Across big brands with lots of locations, organic clicks have gone down and they freak out until they point out that the clicks have just moved over to GMB results, for example.

Casey: They made it harder in some cases for the user to get to the website. For instance, a click to the title brings you to the business listing.

Mary: Google has always said they want to give answers from SERPs and this is the opposite, because it requires clicks into the local finder to find the info you want.

What advice are you giving to businesses now? Especially for those who had visibility at spots 4 or 5 or 6?

Mary: Keep calm and carry on. It takes a while for these things to settle down once Google makes changes. This has been the most chaotic testing in the history of local search. Since then I haven’t heard them come back and complain that traffic and phone calls are down.

Andrew: The biggest drops right now are in mobile organic. There are more ads at the top, the 3 pack, then organic results. Anyone relying on local organic results on mobile are in a pickle. The only solution right now is to expand the net of keywords you’re targeting.

Casey: Reviews are still super important. If you’re the only one that has local reviews or you have a substantial amount of reviews, you can get more clicks if you have more and better reviews.

Joy: Some clients were mad that review stars were removed from branded searches. That makes it just come down to location, and that’s tricky for brands with multiple locations.

Are virtual offices allowed?

Joy: It’s in the guidelines that virtual offices aren’t allowed. The MapMaker team is probably your real enemy because they consider virtual offices to be spam. For home-based businesses, you have to stick with your main office.

Mary asks what to do if competitors are obviously faking locations?

Joy: Report it in MapMaker, leave a comment and include proof. Street View is a great resource. Reporting competitors is a highly underutilized tactic. The MapMaker team is good at getting things reviewed within 1 or 2 weeks.

Does anyone have statistics regarding how clicks are distributed between Google Maps and Google organic?

Casey: Anecdotally, we think Google organic gets more.

Andrew: Google Maps traffic in aggregate is going down over the last couple years. The last data we have is 61 percent of US iPhone users use Apple Maps as their default map app and he expects it to go up to 80–90 percent with the new iPhone purchases at the holidays. There’s an applebot web crawler now. Apple is skimming off traffic from local in a variety of ways, including http://applemapsmarketing.com/

It’s the biggest local search system that most people ignore.

Mary: Optimize for traditional SEO signals first and get that in order. Local SEO factors, like NAP consistency, are more of a suppressing factor than one that boosts you up.

Andrew: When you get to #5, to get to #1 takes fine-tuning the small factors, like adding a keyword to a title.

Links vs. citations?

Mary: In local SEO, nofollow links can have just as much of a signal as a follow link.

Joy: Links of citations. Links + citations are even better. Links are harder to get so that’s why they’re more valuable.

Casey: Citations can sometimes be link sources. He says to look at the hyperlocal directories, see what else you can add to there, and maybe you can get a link there. Everyone may be able to be listed in a city directory, but not everyone’s doing a scholarship or sponsoring a little league team.

What other things like scholarships and sponsorship of community organizations can businesses do?

Mary: A lot of people don’t think about local media attention. That has a huge effect on local rankings, and Google is paying attention.

Andrew: A personal injury attorney said that he spends six figures on PR and media coverage and that gets him to #1 without any other local SEO. He believes that’s the case.

Casey: If you do a scholarship, make it go further and pitch that story to local media. The links from media are more valuable than the .edu links for the scholarship.

Mary: Move your focus offline and ask, what could I do to market my business if the Internet didn’t exist? Google has found a way to reward that.

Joy: If you own a coffee shop, most likely you had a real estate agent, insurance agent, lawyer, a list of common businesses that most people have a relationship with. Reach out to them and say that you’ll give them a testimonial that they can use in their website. Then ask for a link to the site with the explanation that it’s for credibility. Some small portion does it. (She sees it as natural and not a grey area.)

Andrew: You’d start to get into trouble if the anchor text looks commercial or if the link is reciprocal.

With the recent 3-pack update, lots of other tests are going on (phone numbers on and off, 20 listings near the Knowledge Graph). What’s the latest?

Andrew: He suspects the click-through rate on mobile ads increase significantly.

Joy: Phone numbers are back as of right now.

For multiple business locations, do you create separate directory listings?

Andrew: Every location should have a unique page. Every time they post the Google My Business page and the location page, rankings go through the roof. The tension is a Panda problem.

Joy: The biggest problem she sees here is not having unique enough title tags. It’s important for business pages to add unique content if they want to, so that’s a key reason to have separate listings with unique photos and titles, etc.

Mary: The more you can localize each location page, the more you’ll be rewarded for it.

Andrew: REI used to be the poster child for having the best local landing pages.

How do we avoid the difficulties of every time you make a change to a locksmith listing it gets marked as spam?

Joy: Make changes to locksmith listings as minimally as possible; Google moderates like crazy. If you want to make a change, you may want to try calling GMB.

How accurate is the data in the GMB dashboard? (Author’s note: I couldn’t really catch this but would love to get more info from Joy and Andrew to expand it.)

Joy: Pay attention to impressions and call data. Filter the data with big spikes.

Andrew: Don’t get thrown by Search Analytics.

What’s the optimal timeframe for posting new content to a GMB page?

Mary: Unless you have a huge loyal following that you engage with on Google+, then you’re wasting your time there.

Joy: 99 percent of my clients’ customers aren’t on Google+ so that’s not worth it.

Matt: They’re dismantling Google+, right?

Joy: Yes, I think they’ll call it something different soon.

Andrew: I think it’s weird that normal people can’t find GMB pages.

Mary: It seems to be a container for holding your data.

How are apps affecting local?

Andrew: The concept of indexing app content is becoming more important.

Joy: The Yelp app is used a lot. It’s surprising how many businesses haven’t claimed their Yelp listing. Yelp gets a serious amount of traffic.

Casey: Every niche is different. See where your customers are hanging out and then be there.

Matt: The latest industry data is that the Google Search app is growing faster than the Facebook app. Google Search is not just in the browser.

Andrew: Google Search app is incredible. It has the OK Google voice query, and that and Siri are becoming more popular and they give contextual results based on your earlier query. You have to start thinking about the ways people are searching for the second or third clarifying/qualifying query.

Can home-based businesses list on Apple Maps?

Andrew: Technically no. If you look at your Apple Maps dashboard you may see that your listing is not approved, but it may show up in the map. Claim your business at MapsConnect.apple.com. Some industries require a TripAdvisor and Local.com listing.

How are you getting reviews?

Joy: Focus on Android users. They already have all the apps on their phone that they need. They can ask them while they’re there at the office. An allergist gives allergy test shots and patients have to sit for an hour. During that time he asks them to leave a review, and he has tons of reviews.

Mary: Businesses can’t hide any more. It used to be that if you were in a high traffic area you could have enough foot traffic to keep your mediocre business going. The key is to commit to listening to what customers are saying about you and making a huge commitment to continually improve your business based on that feedback.

Casey: If you have a great business, the reviews come in. Get 5 Stars is a tool you can look at using.

Andrew: They use reviews as a content generator for local landing page content. That has a dramatic impact on those pages’ ability to rank organically.

Mary: Mike Blumenthal asked why people leave reviews. Great job or lousy jobs get reviews. In the middle, or an expected experience, doesn’t get reviews.

Joy: A tip shared in the latest Moz Local Search Ranking Factors report: If you go to the local finder and hover over your competitors, there will be links under each competitor, and you may get an insight into what you might be missing.

Andrew: This same resource can help you find the out-of-place thing that may be bringing you down.

Mary: Look for places where they can authenticate the reviews. Trip Advisor and Hotels.com are two authentic review sources and more consumers are figuring these things out, places where you can get more authentic reviews. Yelp tells businesses not to solicit reviews on Yelp, but because they have the check-in feature, Yelp will ask users if they want to review the business.

What kind of audit do you do to identify issues from the Knowledge Graph?

Andrew: Have a good inventory of different KG result types. SERP by SERP. There are certain data sets that Google acknowledges power the KG.

The post SMX Liveblog: Local Search Q&A with Top Local Experts appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Here are our SMX East 2015 speakers presenting on local SEO solutions:

• Mary Bowling, Co-Founder of Ignitor Digital (@MaryBowling)
• Joy Hawkins, Digital Advertising Product Director at Imprezzio Marketing (@JoyanneHawkins)
• Andrew Shotland, Founder of Local SEO Guide.com (@localseoguide)

Mary Bowling’s “The Case of the Hidden Merchants”

“It is my business to know what other people don’t know.” –Sherlock Holmes

One of the first steps of local SEO mystery solving: a very thorough, detailed audit of the site and its organic ranking.

However, you may not always be able to do the Full Monty. In these cases, she’d focus in on these aspects:

• Technical
• SERPs
• Google My Business listing
• Location
• Website
• NAP + URL
• Inbound links
• Competitors

SERPs:

• Are they ranking for their name?
• Are they ranking well in organic and in Google Maps?

Technical:

• Robots.txt
• XML sitemap
• Webmaster Tools/Search Console
• Site: search to see how many pages of the site are in the index and if important pages are showing up

GMB listing:

• Are categories correct? Best primary, all applicable, no marginal
• Guideline violations? Follow the guidelines for representing your business on Google
• Duplicate listings? Search Google for [name(s) + location(s)/phone numbers]

Location:

• Is the map pin exactly correct?
• Check the street view to see if it maps
• Is NAP + URL correct and does it match the website?
• Are they faking it? Do they claim to have a location where they really don’t? Or do they claim they’re open 24 hours when it’s a virtual business service?
• Is the address in the right city?
• Does the business pin match the address pin? (Open two Maps windows and search for the business in one and the address in the other to see if they are in the same place.)

Website:

• On-page optimized for geo terms
• More than one site?
• NAP (name/address/phone number) matches GMB?

NAP + URL:

• Check Moz Local to see if anything stands out.
• Check Yext to see the breadth of the problem.

Inbound links:

• Where are the links from?
• What does the anchor text say?
• Manual penalties (Search Console)
• Algorithmic penalties (Panguin tool)

Competitors:

• Do competitors have advantages you must work harder to overcome?
• Address in city
• Location within map area
• More or better links
• A superlink
• More media attention
• More targeted focus
• Keywords in business name
• Keywords in URL
• More or better content
• Better on-page optimization
• Active and savvy on social

“Presume nothing. You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.” –Sherlock Holmes

Look at the little details and be obsessive about making sure they match up across the board.

Here are Mary’s slides for reference:

Joy Hawkins: “Why Doesn’t My Business Rank in the Maps Section of Google?”

You’ve probably received this email before:

Dear Joy,

Why am I not ranking on the map/local? My website’s better. I have more Google reviews.

Sincerely,

Concerned Client

Problem: A Closed Listing

He moved in the last year to an office down the street.

MapMaker and GMB handle moves differently.

You can only find closed listings in MapMaker. A lot of other methods to find duplicates don’t show closed listings. She always looks here first.

Why are they a problem?

• Older listings are more authoritative.
• Reviews can be on the old listing and not moved over to the new listing.

MapMaker is the way to edit non-verified listings.

• MapMaker’s policy is to close the existing listing and create a brand new listing.
• Pros: Prevents mapping issues.
• Cons: Ranking power is lost (it’s like having a brand new business).

Google My Business

• Tells you to edit the existing listing in the GMB Dashboard
• Pros: You are way less likely to see a big drop in ranking. Reviews, photos, videos and posts stay intact.
• Cons: Driving directions will be wrong for a bit; map marker will be in the wrong spot.

She prefers the GMB way because it’s better for rankings.

Solution: She contacted Google My Business support to merge the open and closed listing. After this, the listing went from nowhere to Page 3.

Problem: Two identical websites

The real website is on StateFarm.com, which has a lot of authority and links. The vanity URL website is easier for users. She looked, and both sites had links pointing to them.

Solution:

• Step 1: Use a canonical tag to tell Google your preferred site.
• Step 2: Google will ignore this and keep the site in the index if the non-canonical site has more links. However, the link equity was combined.

What about the filter? There are other State Farm agents that are ranking higher and causing him to be filtered out of results.

Solution: More links from good local sources.

Problem: Address Free-Form

The address from GMB does not transfer into the right fields on MapMaker.

Some signs of mapping issues:

• Driving directions are wrong.
• In some cases, your map marker won’t stay in the right spot.
• No Street View on your listing in Maps.

Solution:

• Try changing the address in GMB to use the exact same formatting as MapMaker.
• Contact GMB phone support.

NAP Diagnosis Process

She also uses a directory tool called Yellowbot to find multiple databases and directories where a business is listed.

Bonus tip:

There are authority data providers that are applicable only to certain industries. Working with medical professionals? Make sure NPPES is up-to-date. This is a .gov data provider with huge authority, and keeping it up to date is key.

Here’s Joy’s slide deck for your reference:

Andrew Shotland, the Local SEO Guide, in The Case of the Mysterious Local Entities

The Knowledge Graph is brilliant. Google has created all the data together to try to get a 3D picture.

It’s brilliant — like a 2 year old. It throws hissy fits and wets its pants. :O

For example, Google takes data from DMOZ, which is largely outdated.

When is a closed GMB listing not closed? (See answer on Local SEO Guide.)

Q: Why is a cat showing up in our knowledge panel?

Check out this example of a random photo showing up for a Hyundai dealer:

To solve this mystery, he chased many trails and couldn’t solve it. Eventually, they had multiple people from different IP addresses report that the image was not relevant to the business.

Q: Why don’t we rank #1 for “local seo company Pleasanton, ca”?

• No address on site
• No LocalBusiness schema
• Lots of NAP issues

Q: Can we fix the ranking without addressing NAP issues?

• He optimized the on-page.
• He updated the GMB page.
• Got a quality inbound link.
• Added address to GMB landing page.
• Changed Google+ link to his company rather than himself.

With all that, he locked in #2 in the local listings!

What made the difference to get #1 was adding the keyword to the title tag. But it bounces around and he’s still looking to solve the mystery, which you can follow along on his blog at LocalSEOGuide.com.

Conclusions

Q&A

Do you tell clients how long it might take? Joy says she usually gives a 3-month standard. Andrew says that they tell them they’ll have an idea of the problem in a couple weeks and then start executing. Mary explains the difficulty of NAP clean-up is because no one ever has all their logins, new accounts have to be created, and it requires incredible attention to detail. NAP problems can plague businesses for years.

For more Q&A, see the liveblog of their other SMX East session: Local Search Q&A with Top Local Experts.

The post Sherlock Investigates Local SEO: How We Solved 3 Local Ranking Mysteries appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

1. Originally published August 10: The number of organic local listings on desktop and mobile has shrunk from seven to three. The new three-result Local Pack replaces what was previously a Local 7-Pack.
2. Also from the original post: A new ad type in beta, Home Service ads, could squeeze out organic listings for home service providers from the Google first page.
3. Added August 24: Google mobile results are ad-dominant. Sponsored listings take up all above-the-fold space for many location-specific and non-location-specific queries.

Taken together we see a series of changes that eliminate truly organic local listings on Google’s first page. The remainder of this post has been updated to reflect three recent changes rather than the two originally included in this report.

In the last weeks, Google local results shifted in three significant ways in which local businesses should take note.

1. Fewer local organic results display on the first page.

Where last week seven local results were shown next to a map for a local-intent query, this week we see only three organic local listings by a map. As a result, local businesses ranked beyond the top three have no organic visibility.

2. Google is testing a new search ad format for home service providers that could ultimately replace organic local listings.

Google is beta testing Home Service ads. To be included in this coveted space, service providers must meet the most stringent qualifications for advertisers yet, including background and license checks, online reputation checks and mystery shopping checks. Home service providers are primarily made up of local businesses, so organic local listings are getting the SERP real estate squeeze.

3. On mobile SERPs, above-the-fold (ie., before-the-scroll) results are all ads.

Google confirmed that it will display three text ads above the fold of mobile results. For some local-intent queries, Google is testing a local SERP layout with three sponsored (ad) results and a map. Mobile searches have more of a local-intent lean than desktop searches. Displacing organic listings from the first view of a mobile SERP significantly downgrades the visibility of local organic results.

1. Local Results Pack Shrinks from 7 to 3 Results

With fewer organic local results displaying in the local pack format on Page one, businesses with store locations will be strongly impacted. We started seeing the new results consistently across all SERPs for all clients with brick-and-mortar locations late last Thursday night (August 6). Google hasn’t made an official announcement regarding the change, but considering the speed of the rollout and its permanence in all our test queries, we’re certain the change is a permanent one.

The immediate impact here is obvious. If a business ranks outside of the top three local results organically, visibility will be substantially impacted. The top three results are all that matter now when it comes to Google My Business (GMB) local listings.

The New Look of Google Local Organic: Before and After

Previously, Google would display Google My Business information in a 7-Pack with seven local results on a Page 1 SERP:

The 7-pack has been replaced by a new local pack that contains only the top three results.

Here’s what the new local pack looks like:

On desktop and mobile, the phone number and full address for businesses are no longer displayed on the SERP. The street name and hours now appear on the new local pack as well as “Website” and “Directions” buttons.

This should impact the number of people who visit local business websites from local SERPs, as previously there was no direct link to the website from the local pack. It also eliminates the ability of the potential customers to dial or visit the store without interacting with the local listing in some way.

This is a very deliberate change by Google; there was a substantial amount of store calls and visits that they could never attribute to their SERPs prior to this change. Now if a searcher wants the information, they have to click through to get it.

It’s also important to note that clicks on the business name itself no longer take searchers to the business’s Google+ page, but instead take them to a “local finder” page that shows the expanded listing information for the result they clicked on, along with an expanded set of local results. Clearly here Google is cutting ties between Google+ and local, choosing instead to feature a hybrid of their maps products and removing any paths to the Google+ business pages that they previously required businesses to create in order to be listed in local search.

On mobile devices users get the same type of experience :

On mobile, the website and directions links that appear on the desktop SERP have been replaced by a single “Call” button. The phone number is hidden, and we suspect that this is also intentional.

Again, the upshot of the shrunken local listings is reduced visibility for any local business ranked beyond the top three. Not displaying core information like phone numbers and addresses in SERPs allows Google to directly attribute searcher conversion behavior (like getting driving directions or making phone calls) to local search results ━ a major requirement if Google hopes to monetize local search, which leads us to …

2. Sponsored Home Services Listings (Beta) Could Replace Organic Local Listings

A brand new type of local sponsored listings began showing up at the end of July. For SERPs that provide home services, Google is testing a stack of ads called Home Service ads that dominate the top of the page.

In July, Google acquired Homejoy, an online service connecting customers with house cleaners. At the time we reported on speculation that a new feature may be in the works to connect home services providers (house cleaners, plumbers, roofers, etc.) with people searching for home improvement terms, right in the results. That feature is certainly what we’re seeing today in the beta test available in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The New Local Search Ad We’re Seeing in San Francisco SERPs

In the home services ad stack we see three sponsored listings deemed “qualified,” and a call to action to “connect with trusted and experienced professionals in your area.”

Here’s Moz’s Dr. Pete’s snap of the SERP, one of the first reports:

New paid local entity in testing on Google last night (search for “plumbers”) – potential game-changer, IMO — pic.twitter.com/ehlLfs9MOw

— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) July 29, 2015

That same day, a Google rep explained what we’re seeing via the @adwords account:

@BryantGarvin No, not the ad that @dr_pete had a screenshot of. This is a beta Home Service ad, not a location extension ad format. -Grace — Google AdWords (@adwords) July 29, 2015

The support page on home service ads has more details about how businesses qualify for home service ads:

“To help provide peace of mind when booking a professional through home service ads, Google requires all locksmiths, plumbers, cleaning services, and handymen to undergo a series of screening procedures, including background, insurance, and license checks, interviews, online reputation checks, and mystery shopping.”

While home service ads are currently only available for businesses in the Bay Area, we see a connection between them and the larger changes to Google’s local space. On the SERP for San Francisco plumbers, there are no local organic listings on the page. Is the end goal of all the changes to Google’s local search results monetization of local across the board?

3. Mobile Local Results Test All Ads Above the Fold

Previously our post closed with the question above: Is the end goal of these changes to monetize the local SERP? As if in response, Google appears to be testing nearby business ads — three sponsored listings and a map — in local-intent SERPs.

With the local pack shrinking organic SERP real estate, there will be businesses that find they are knocked off Page 1. For business that meet the qualifications and have enough budget to pay to play, ads may be their best and only option to get back that Page 1 visibility.

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SEO Checklist: 5 Factors You Can Expect to Change

With Google’s search algorithms changing on a daily basis, content strategist Kristi Kellogg advises Internet marketers to adopt a proactive rather than reactive approach to SEO by anticipating changes and being prepared for any potential threats to your website optimization. Kellogg addresses five fast-moving battlefronts that are worth reviewing on a quarterly basis:

• Local optimization: Local results are a hotbed of activity, especially with search shifting from desktop to mobile. As an example, Kellogg discusses the recent change in the way reviews appear in search results.
• Search platforms: As new devices become available, count on search patterns to evolve as people explore new ways of embracing mobile technology.
• Keyword targets: As search patterns evolve, so too will the words people use to find your website.
• Schema markup: Confirmed as a ranking factor by at least one major search engine, schema is an area of fast development that offers websites a chance to stand out in the search results pages.
• Link building: Backlinks may not be as important to ranking as they once were, and the question of building links needs to continue.

Survival SEO: How to Do the Search Marketing of Tomorrow, Today

To prepare your website for Google’s next big algorithmic change, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s SEO Manager Mindy Weinstein shares three key search marketing survival tips. Those tips include:

• Understanding how user intent affects the SERP
• Recognizing the impact of social signals on ranking
• Creating content that truly speaks to your audience’s needs and desires

SEO News and Upcoming Training Events

The Hot Topic this month covers highlights from Facebook’s first f8 developer conference in three years, including anonymous logins, extended ad networks beyond Facebook, and more. In Education Matters, learn how to create an SEO culture throughout your organization. Whether you prefer on-site or off-site training for your organization, Bruce Clay, Inc. offers SEO training in the U.S. and even Europe. Coming up: European marketers can join Bruce Clay on July 2–3 for the next SEO Training event happening in Milan, Italy!

With a commitment to excellence, Bruce Clay, Inc. aims to serve its readers with meaningful, educational and informative content that propels businesses forward in a digital age. For monthly Internet marketing news and upcoming SEO training information that will put you ahead of the competition, sign up for the SEO Newsletter here.

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Will Scott @w2scott, Search Influence

Google sucks. Google treats small businesses as a rounding error in their economic equation. A strategy for local businesses is barnacle SEO: attaching oneself to a large fixed object and waiting for customers to float by in the current. Google says the most important thing in business is sincerity. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.

Google has a weakness; they’re a sucker for big “authority” sites:

• YouTube
• Yelp
• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Houzz
• YP.com

Barnacle SEO in the wild:

Google, in the last several months, has unbundled results from the same domain. Previously you’d find

Here we see yellowpages.com listed 4 times.

What?

So now he’ll show some ways we can figure out what results Google is going to show and try to latch onto that opportunity.

Query “gastric bypass surgery new hartford ny” — gastric bypass is a very competitive term and when you do this search you’ll see Dr. Graber coming up 9 times on different domains. He’s winning that very competitive SERP.

Query “bounce like beyonce” — you’ll see a plastic surgeon at the top of the page from their YouTube video.

How?

Video is the strongest inset in Universal results and YouTube is 8/10 of those video results. Local is back to being long-tail search. Hang your local search phrases off an authoritative site, like YouTube.

Check out ranking reports for your local keyword phrase.

Think of other sites where you might be able to position your content and how you can make that work for you. Adding some links to the Zocdoc result in this ranking report may be able to get it into position 3 or 4 from 14.

Local Search: It’s No Laughing Matter (Or, the Factors of Local Search)

Greg Gifford @greggifford, AutoRevo

Greg’s presentation can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/localsearchcomedy. He works at an SEO and social media firm that services car dealerships.

There was a huge algo shift from October through November 2013 and saw a return to an old way. The map pack stabilized to 7 listings. There are more search results in the search results. Optimized vertical and local directories are ranking well now where they hadn’t been before the end of last year. Now you can get several results on a SERP (organic plus map-pack). There’s a huge opportunity by simply adding city and state to a web page Title tag.

2013 local search ranking factors: these influence rankings

Google+ Local (aka Google Places, Google for Business and every name they change it to)

Google wants Google+ Local to be like a drive-through — get in and out quick with what you need. If you are having issues you can get help in the Google Business Forums (but he says this with a sarcastic flair, as though getting Google to help you might be possible but is unlikely).

They are finally merging Google’s old Places dashboard and the new Google+ Local dashboard. If you previously forced a merge, you’ll be getting an email warning you about “duplicate listings.”

Optimization tips for Google+ Local business page:

• Write long, awesome descriptions and use formatting and links
• Upload lots of photos
• New update: you can now add a single descriptor to business name (to help locate or describe) — it’s going to get spammed but hey, why not try it since it’s a new rule Google’s allowing
• You can now add up to 10 categories
• There aren’t many users on Google+ but do your best to engage
• Circle users as your business

Reviews

Reviews are back to stars, but now with decimals. (Zagat rating system is gone.) Reviews now appear in an isolated pop-up. Know that you can’t buy a good reputation, you have to earn it. No strategy will help you get positive reviews if you’re not good at what you do and good to customers.

Tips for getting reviews:

• Remove roadblocks
• Ask for reviews and tell them how (but not for Yelp)
• Don’t ignore Yelp — it powers Apple Maps
• You need 5 reviews to see stars on Google+
• Shoot for 10 reviews on Google+, then diversify to other third-party review sites
• Only you can get reviews — you have to ask
• Tactic: handout with instructions (cheap printed 4×6 card)
• Tactic: follow up with emails but don’t do it in an automated way because you don’t want to ask for a review from someone who left you one
• Slow is okay — most businesses get 1-2 a month
• Don’t copy reviews to your site; Google wants Google+ reviews to be unique so they’ll remove duplicates from their property

On-Site Optimization for Local
Landing page optimization tips (but really, should be every page):

• city/state in Title tag
• city/state in H1 heading
• city/state in URL
• city/state in ALT attributes (don’t forget photos on your landing page)
• city/state in Meta Description
• city/state in content
• Embedded Google Map pointing to G+ location, not just address
• NAP on landing page must match NAP on G+ page
• Use schema markup in your NAP

• Include NAP on every page
• You must use a local number — no call tracking or 800 numbers Would you rather have tons of data that you don’t use or get more phone calls?

Create awesome content for local:

• It’s all about branding.
• Make your blog a local destination.
• Blog about your community.
• Sponsor local events.
• Create local event guides.
• Review local businesses.
• Create a local resource directory.
• Interview local figures.
• Crazy idea: do just a little linkbuilding and social on your local content.

What if you’re not in the area that you’re trying to rank in? An example is a rehab center. “The best rehab facility in California … is actually in Texas.”

Links: You don’t need that many to succeed in local, but don’t ignore low domain authority local sites.

Citations: Are you almost in the map pack or almost #1? More citations (mentions of your NAP on other websites) will get you over the hump. Structured citations are directory listings. Unstructured citations are mentions like in a blog. Look up tier 1 and tier 2 citations.

The tool he uses for citation management and research is Whitespark. It spits out citation ideas and checks current citations by running your phone number and you can get ideas by running your competitor’s phone number. Then compare yourself to your competitors.

Local Carousel

The number of businesses in the carousel depends on the user’s resolution, dimensions.

Usually the photo that shows up is the first photo uploaded to your Google+ account. Google’s solution to this problem? Delete all your photos and start over… But that doesn’t work if you didn’t upload the first photo. So, over the last few, months Google has been changing photos and is shifting from exterior shots until, lately, it’s been interior shots. Learn how Carousel thumbnails are cropped for display: bit.ly/carouselcropping. There might be an answer coming about how businesses can choose their photo.

Local SEO Tools

• Moz.com: Good at a little bit of everything. Open Site Explorer is a must.
• Places Scout: Local extravaganza! keywords, ranking, reputation management (archives and reports new reviews)
• SEMrush: Primarily for PPC intel and keyword research with a new rank tracker
• Link Prospector: Tool for discovering link opportunities
• CopyPress: Content creation outsourcing at $50 for 500 word article, including ideation
• Followerwonk: Twitter analysis
• ReTargeter: Display ad remarketing

WordPress Tools

• Yoast SEO is vital but turn off the OpenGraph Meta info in Yoast. He doesn’t get it right. You don’t want it to pull a random image and use the same SEO Meta data.
• Open Graph Metabox: set unique OG dat per post/page
• nRelate Flyout: showcases similar content; increases engagement/time on site
• WordFence Security: best security plugin available and it’s free

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